Hello.

This article is for a particular source code. This source code's
compatibility does not vary with / cease with / depend on any
Visual-Studio compiler's version.

I need to support e.g. Windows 10 and Windows 7. It is a good idea to
support other versions, e.g. Windows Vista.

I build on Windows 10.

New versions of Microsoft Visual Studio do not support old versions of
Windows.

I plan to choose some (probably old) version of Visual Studio or MS
SDK to build this source code, such that it will be executable on
Windows 7.

I want this executable to be fast. I want this executable to be
compatible. I do not aim to give it code bloat. Are there any
recommendations for particular Visual-Studio or MS-SDK versions to
avoid or use?

A good choice for Windows 7 and Windows 10 and Windows Vista is
supposedly . . . Visual Studio 2015.

Cf. HTTPS://learn.MicroSoft.com/En-US/VisualStudio/releases/2015/VS2015-compatibility-VS

Good choices for Windows 7 and Windows Vista (and Windows 10?) are
supposedly . . . Visual Studio 2013; and Visual Studio 2010.

Cf. HTTPS://learn.MicroSoft.com/En-US/VisualStudio/releases/2013/VS2013-compatibility-VS
and
HTTPS://learn.MicroSoft.com/En-US/VisualStudio/releases/2010/VS2010-SP1-VS

Compatible versions of Windows for Visual Studio 2012 are not made
clear by HTTPS://learn.MicroSoft.com/En-US/VisualStudio/releases/2012/VS2012-sysrequirements

A new version of Visual Studio demands a huge amount of memory.

These versions are not clearly good choices for all variants of
Windows 10 . . . Visual Studio 2017; Visual Studio 2019; Visual
Studio 2022; and Visual Studio 2026.

Cf. HTTPS://learn.MicroSoft.com/En-US/VisualStudio/releases/2017/VS2017-system-requirements-VS
and HTTPS://learn.MicroSoft.com/En-US/VisualStudio/releases/2019/system-requirements
and HTTPS://learn.MicroSoft.com/En-US/VisualStudio/releases/2022/system-requirements
and HTTPS://learn.MicroSoft.com/En-US/VisualStudio/releases/2026/VS-system-requirements

Thanks.
(S. HTTP://Gloucester.Insomnia247.NL/ fuer Kontaktdaten!)

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 25/07/2026 11:40 PM, C¢il¡n Niocl s¡n Glost‚ir wrote:

Hello.

This article is for a particular source code. This source code's compatibility does not vary with / cease with / depend on any
Visual-Studio compiler's version.

I need to support e.g. Windows 10 and Windows 7. It is a good idea to
support other versions, e.g. Windows Vista.

I build on Windows 10.

New versions of Microsoft Visual Studio do not support old versions of Windows.

I plan to choose some (probably old) version of Visual Studio or MS
SDK to build this source code, such that it will be executable on
Windows 7.

I want this executable to be fast. I want this executable to be
compatible. I do not aim to give it code bloat. Are there any
recommendations for particular Visual-Studio or MS-SDK versions to
avoid or use?

A good choice for Windows 7 and Windows 10 and Windows Vista is
supposedly . . . Visual Studio 2015.

Cf. HTTPS://learn.MicroSoft.com/En-US/VisualStudio/releases/2015/VS2015-compatibility-VS

Good choices for Windows 7 and Windows Vista (and Windows 10?) are
supposedly . . . Visual Studio 2013; and Visual Studio 2010.

Cf. HTTPS://learn.MicroSoft.com/En-US/VisualStudio/releases/2013/VS2013-compatibility-VS
and HTTPS://learn.MicroSoft.com/En-US/VisualStudio/releases/2010/VS2010-SP1-VS

Compatible versions of Windows for Visual Studio 2012 are not made
clear by HTTPS://learn.MicroSoft.com/En-US/VisualStudio/releases/2012/VS2012-sysrequirements

A new version of Visual Studio demands a huge amount of memory.

These versions are not clearly good choices for all variants of
Windows 10 . . . Visual Studio 2017; Visual Studio 2019; Visual
Studio 2022; and Visual Studio 2026.

Cf. HTTPS://learn.MicroSoft.com/En-US/VisualStudio/releases/2017/VS2017-system-requirements-VS
and HTTPS://learn.MicroSoft.com/En-US/VisualStudio/releases/2019/system-requirements
and HTTPS://learn.MicroSoft.com/En-US/VisualStudio/releases/2022/system-requirements
and HTTPS://learn.MicroSoft.com/En-US/VisualStudio/releases/2026/VS-system-requirements

Thanks.
(S. HTTP://Gloucester.Insomnia247.NL/ fuer Kontaktdaten!)

You can reduce your memory requirements just by using the command line
tools. I tend to never use the /visual studio/ proper, and just run
the compiler, CL.EXE, in a CMD window. I use /x64 Native Tools Command
Prompt for VS 2022/. There will be several command prompts installed,
and you can run each one separately.

You can install several different versions of visual studio concurrent-
ly in my experience. You can give each one a try. As long as you stick
to community releases, you don't need to pay a license fee and can try different versions at no cost.

Last time I looked, you could also get a community release of
Embarcadero, formerly Borland. For really old versions of Windows, you
can also use Open Watcom and/or Digital Mars.


Good luck, and happy C coding!
--
Johann | email: invalid -> com | http://www.myrkraverk.com/blog/
I'm not from the Internet, I just work there. | via Easynews.com

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

W dniu 25.07.2026 oÿ18:38, Johann 'Myrkraverk' Oskarsson pisze:

You can reduce your memory requirements just by using the command line
tools.ÿ I tend to never use the /visual studio/ proper, and just run
the compiler, CL.EXE, in a CMD window.ÿ I use /x64 Native Tools Command Prompt for VS 2022/.ÿ There will be several command prompts installed,
and you can run each one separately.

I am just wonder: Do you use cl.exe in plain makefiles?
Or maybe: Do you use CMake?
If not: What script lang do you use to avoid constantly typing cl.exe
commands by hand?

What I mean was: What scripting lang is useful for you for compilations
under Windows?

--
Z totaliztycznym salutem!
Jacek Marcin Jaworski, Pruszcz Gd., woj. Pomorskie, Polska ??, UE ??;
tel.: +48-609-170-742, najlepiej w godz.: 5:00-5:55 lub 16:00-17:25; <jmj@energokod.gda.pl>, gpg: 4A541AA7A6E872318B85D7F6A651CC39244B0BFA;
Domowa s. WWW: <https://energokod.gda.pl>;
Mini Netykieta: <https://energokod.gda.pl/MiniNetykieta.html>;
Mailowa Samoobrona: <https://emailselfdefense.fsf.org/pl>.
UWAGA:
NIE ZACI?GAJ "UKRYTEGO D?UGU"! P?A? ZA PROG. FOSS I INFO. INTERNETOWE!
CZYTAJ DARMOWY: "17. Raport Totaliztyczny - Patroni Kontra Bankierzy": <https://energokod.gda.pl/raporty-totaliztyczne/17.%20Patroni%20Kontra%20Bankierzy.pdf>


--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 26/07/2026 1:34 AM, ??Jacek Marcin Jaworski?? wrote:

W dniu 25.07.2026 oÿ18:38, Johann 'Myrkraverk' Oskarsson pisze:

You can reduce your memory requirements just by using the command line
tools.ÿ I tend to never use the /visual studio/ proper, and just run
the compiler, CL.EXE, in a CMD window.ÿ I use /x64 Native Tools Command
Prompt for VS 2022/.ÿ There will be several command prompts installed,
and you can run each one separately.

I am just wonder: Do you use cl.exe in plain makefiles?
Or maybe: Do you use CMake?
If not: What script lang do you use to avoid constantly typing cl.exe commands by hand?

What I mean was: What scripting lang is useful for you for compilations under Windows?

My own projects are usually quite simple, in Windows, with relatively
small number of source files, so I just use /nmake/ most of the time.

I find CMake too complicated for simple projects, and not worth the
effort.

For ready made .sln files, I can use msbuild.exe. For an example
project, you can look at Magiblot's Turbo Vision, at

https://github.com/magiblot/tvision/

but it looks at first glance the .sln is created by CMake. It's been
a number of years since I did my last git pull, so I'm not sure how
I got the .sln file.

I may sometimes resort to batch files, and I never, ever use powershell.
For a future project, I may test drive Lake, a build system in Lua.

https://github.com/stevedonovan/Lake


And that's a good reminder, because now I'm thinking of using the
Turbo Vision GUI for a new project. It'll be slightly annoying to
mix with otherwise C code, but CL.EXE will happily link it, so there's
no problem.
--
Johann | email: invalid -> com | http://www.myrkraverk.com/blog/
I'm not from the Internet, I just work there. | via Easynews.com

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Johann 'Myrkraverk' Oskarsson skrev: |------------------------------------------------------------------------| |"You can install several different versions of visual studio concurrent-|
|ly in my experience. [. . .]" | |------------------------------------------------------------------------|

Hej!

Tack! I think of using different accounts for different Visual-Studio
versions (with different versions installed in non-standard
directorires). Maybe I am more cautious than necessary, but this is
not a bad thing.
(S. HTTP://Gloucester.Insomnia247.NL/ fuer Kontaktdaten!)

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 7/25/2026 9:38 AM, Johann 'Myrkraverk' Oskarsson wrote:
[...]

You can reduce your memory requirements just by using the command line
tools.ÿ I tend to never use the /visual studio/ proper, and just run
the compiler, CL.EXE, in a CMD window.

Fwiw, remember MSVC 6? It was way better at C than C++.

[...]

Good luck, and happy C coding!

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 7/25/2026 1:13 PM, Johann 'Myrkraverk' Oskarsson wrote:

On 26/07/2026 1:34 AM, ??Jacek Marcin Jaworski?? wrote:

W dniu 25.07.2026 oÿ18:38, Johann 'Myrkraverk' Oskarsson pisze:

You can reduce your memory requirements just by using the command line
tools.ÿ I tend to never use the /visual studio/ proper, and just run
the compiler, CL.EXE, in a CMD window.ÿ I use /x64 Native Tools Command
Prompt for VS 2022/.ÿ There will be several command prompts installed,
and you can run each one separately.

I am just wonder: Do you use cl.exe in plain makefiles?
Or maybe: Do you use CMake?
If not: What script lang do you use to avoid constantly typing cl.exe
commands by hand?

What I mean was: What scripting lang is useful for you for
compilations under Windows?

My own projects are usually quite simple, in Windows, with relatively
small number of source files, so I just use /nmake/ most of the time.

I find CMake too complicated for simple projects, and not worth the
effort.

I typically used GNU make, which while possibly non-standard worked well enough for me (not quite as limited as nmake).

For some smaller programs though, just invoked cl.exe via a ".BAT" file.


Also not really used CMake or similar, as it seems like too much added
hassle, and is in some ways too high-level and less obvious how to use
it with custom tools or toolchains.

For ready made .sln files, I can use msbuild.exe.ÿ For an example
project, you can look at Magiblot's Turbo Vision, at

ÿ https://github.com/magiblot/tvision/

but it looks at first glance the .sln is created by CMake.ÿ It's been
a number of years since I did my last git pull, so I'm not sure how
I got the .sln file.

I don't usually use sln files...
Too much tied to Visual Studio, and not really suited to hand-editing.


I don't usually use Visual Studio itself except as a debugger, partly
because it tends to perform like epic dog-crap most of the time.


I prefer not to use an editor that has very obvious input lag, and may
take seconds or more to respond to clicking on things (and, when
launching something in the debugger, the program is solidly up and
running well before Visual Studio crawls through redrawing its UI into
the debugger view...)..

Sometimes I am left to wonder who exactly finds this sort of thing
acceptable as a general purpose IDE...

As a debugger, it works OK, even if single stepping is also pretty
annoying as it takes around a second or so for each single-step.


Not like this is exactly a new thing though, like MS has spent decades
having VS performance being kinda awful and scaling it up to remain consistently awful when HW gets faster.


Mostly using Notepad2 as a standalone editor. While Notepad++ is more
popular, I just sorta liked Notepad2 more. Both having syntax
highlighting, multi-level undo, ..., and the same general annoyance of
syntax highlighting being not completely monospace.

I may sometimes resort to batch files, and I never, ever use powershell.
For a future project, I may test drive Lake, a build system in Lua.

ÿ https://github.com/stevedonovan/Lake

And that's a good reminder, because now I'm thinking of using the
Turbo Vision GUI for a new project.ÿ It'll be slightly annoying to
mix with otherwise C code, but CL.EXE will happily link it, so there's
no problem.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 26/07/2026 2:52 AM, Chris M. Thomasson wrote:

On 7/25/2026 9:38 AM, Johann 'Myrkraverk' Oskarsson wrote:
[...]

You can reduce your memory requirements just by using the command line
tools.ÿ I tend to never use the /visual studio/ proper, and just run
the compiler, CL.EXE, in a CMD window.

Fwiw, remember MSVC 6? It was way better at C than C++.

I do. I have an unopened hardcopy sitting in my shelf, waiting
for me to dig into Windows retroprogramming. I've never used it,
not even when it was current.

I'll probably install it in an XP virtual machine, one of these
days.
--
Johann | email: invalid -> com | http://www.myrkraverk.com/blog/
I'm not from the Internet, I just work there. | via Easynews.com

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

echo
'Not like this is exactly a new thing though, like MS has spent decades
having VS performance being kinda awful and scaling it up to remain consistently awful when HW gets faster.'
| sed -e 's/VS/Windows/'
and it is still true. Microsoft actually sponsored PAPI. Funny that.
(S. HTTP://Gloucester.Insomnia247.NL/ fuer Kontaktdaten!)

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

BGB <cr88192@GMail.com> wrote: |------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|"I prefer not to use an editor that has very obvious input lag, and may | |take seconds or more to respond to clicking on things (and, when | |launching something in the debugger, the program is solidly up and | |running well before Visual Studio crawls through redrawing its UI into |
|the debugger view...).. |
| | |Sometimes I am left to wonder who exactly finds this sort of thing | |acceptable as a general purpose IDE..." | |------------------------------------------------------------------------|

Sigasi ditched Eclipse for VS Code.
HTTPS://WWW.Sigasi.com/svh-faq

(S. HTTP://Gloucester.Insomnia247.NL/ fuer Kontaktdaten!)

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Sun, 26 Jul 2026 02:13:41 +0800, Johann 'Myrkraverk' Oskarsson wrote:

For ready made .sln files, I can use msbuild.exe. For an example
project, you can look at Magiblot's Turbo Vision, at

https://github.com/magiblot/tvision/

but it looks at first glance the .sln is created by CMake. It's been
a number of years since I did my last git pull, so I'm not sure how
I got the .sln file.

There seems to be no .sln file in the source repo, anyway. (Which
makes sense, if it?s automatically generated as part of the build.)

I see that project now works on Linux as well. While on Windows, there
is this caveat: ?Only compatible with the Win32 Console API?. Which is
a shame, since Microsoft are now moving away from that <https://github.com/microsoft/terminal>.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Sat, 25 Jul 2026 13:55:49 -0500, BGB wrote:

Also not really used CMake or similar, as it seems like too much
added hassle, and is in some ways too high-level and less obvious
how to use it with custom tools or toolchains.

The whole point with CMake is precisely to do away with the hassles of platform-specific build systems. Think of it as a meta-build-system:
it creates control files to drive build systems.

It?s extremely extensible. You can certainly incorporate arbitrary
custom tools/toolchains/whatever into the build process, since it?s
all about executing commands.

For example, here <https://developer.blender.org/T37228> was a patch I
proposed for the Blender project to avoid duplication of effort each
time they made a change to the definitions of the structures inside a
Blender document, by having the build script generate the various
necessary sequences of C code at build time, from one set of
definitions. They didn?t seem keen on it, for some reason ...

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 7/25/2026 10:40 AM, C¢il¡n Niocl s¡n Glost‚ir wrote:

Hello.

This article is for a particular source code. This source code's compatibility does not vary with / cease with / depend on any
Visual-Studio compiler's version.

I need to support e.g. Windows 10 and Windows 7. It is a good idea to
support other versions, e.g. Windows Vista.

I build on Windows 10.

New versions of Microsoft Visual Studio do not support old versions of Windows.

I plan to choose some (probably old) version of Visual Studio or MS
SDK to build this source code, such that it will be executable on
Windows 7.

I want this executable to be fast. I want this executable to be
compatible. I do not aim to give it code bloat. Are there any
recommendations for particular Visual-Studio or MS-SDK versions to
avoid or use?

A good choice for Windows 7 and Windows 10 and Windows Vista is
supposedly . . . Visual Studio 2015.

Cf. HTTPS://learn.MicroSoft.com/En-US/VisualStudio/releases/2015/VS2015-compatibility-VS

Good choices for Windows 7 and Windows Vista (and Windows 10?) are
supposedly . . . Visual Studio 2013; and Visual Studio 2010.

Cf. HTTPS://learn.MicroSoft.com/En-US/VisualStudio/releases/2013/VS2013-compatibility-VS
and HTTPS://learn.MicroSoft.com/En-US/VisualStudio/releases/2010/VS2010-SP1-VS

Compatible versions of Windows for Visual Studio 2012 are not made
clear by HTTPS://learn.MicroSoft.com/En-US/VisualStudio/releases/2012/VS2012-sysrequirements

A new version of Visual Studio demands a huge amount of memory.

These versions are not clearly good choices for all variants of
Windows 10 . . . Visual Studio 2017; Visual Studio 2019; Visual
Studio 2022; and Visual Studio 2026.

Cf. HTTPS://learn.MicroSoft.com/En-US/VisualStudio/releases/2017/VS2017-system-requirements-VS
and HTTPS://learn.MicroSoft.com/En-US/VisualStudio/releases/2019/system-requirements
and HTTPS://learn.MicroSoft.com/En-US/VisualStudio/releases/2022/system-requirements
and HTTPS://learn.MicroSoft.com/En-US/VisualStudio/releases/2026/VS-system-requirements

Thanks.
(S. HTTP://Gloucester.Insomnia247.NL/ fuer Kontaktdaten!)

I use Visual Studio 2015. It supports Windows 11 to Windows XP. I
build on Windows 11.

Lynn


--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Lynn McGuire <LynnMcGuire5@GMail.com> wrote: |-------------------------------------------------------------------|
|"[. . .] |

These versions are not clearly good choices for all variants of |
Windows 10 . . . Visual Studio 2017; [. . .]; Visual |
Studio 2022; and Visual Studio 2026. |
|

|[. . .] |
|I use Visual Studio 2015. It supports Windows 11 to Windows XP. I|
|build on Windows 11. |
| |
|Lynn" | |-------------------------------------------------------------------|

Dear Mister McGuire:

Thanks for this feedback which may help me to choose Visual Studio
2015.

A different person emailed me. He recommended for Windows 10: Visual
Studio 2017 or Visual Studio 2022 (without criticizing Visual Studio
2015). For Windows 10, he recommended to avoid the most recent Visual
Studio.

However, despite what that emailer wrote, I note
"Visual Studio 2017 will install and run on the following operating
systems:

Windows 11 supported OS versions: Home, Pro, Pro Education, Pro for Workstations, Enterprise, and Education
Windows Server 2025: Standard and Datacenter
Windows Server 2022: Standard and Datacenter
Windows Server 2019: Standard and Datacenter
Windows Server 2016: Standard and Datacenter
Each supported operating system has its own lifecycle independent of
the Visual Studio support lifecycle. The Visual Studio team applies
each of those lifecycle schedules to inform adding and removing
support for operating system versions. An operating system may reach
end of support before the Visual Studio release, at which point Visual
Studio will no longer consider that operating system version
supported. If an operating system is in the Extended Security Updates
(ESU) phase then it is supported only with ESU patches installed.
[. . .]
Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC edition and Windows 10 S are not supported
for development. You may use Visual Studio 2017 to build apps that run
on Windows 10 LTSC and Windows 10 S.
[. . .]"
says HTTPS://learn.MicroSoft.com/En-US/VisualStudio/releases/2017/VS2017-system-requirements-VS

I do not know what variant of Windows 10 I have (e.g. Windows 10
Enterprise LTSC edition or Windows 10 S or something else).

HTTPS://learn.MicroSoft.com/En-US/VisualStudio/releases/2022/system-requirements
warns similarly about many variants of Windows 10.

(S. HTTP://Gloucester.Insomnia247.NL/ fuer Kontaktdaten!)

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Sun, 7/26/2026 6:13 AM, C¢il¡n Niocl s¡n Glost‚ir wrote:

Lynn McGuire <LynnMcGuire5@GMail.com> wrote: |-------------------------------------------------------------------|
|"[. . .] |

These versions are not clearly good choices for all variants of |
Windows 10 . . . Visual Studio 2017; [. . .]; Visual |
Studio 2022; and Visual Studio 2026. |
|

|[. . .] |
|I use Visual Studio 2015. It supports Windows 11 to Windows XP. I|
|build on Windows 11. |
| |
|Lynn" | |-------------------------------------------------------------------|

Dear Mister McGuire:

Thanks for this feedback which may help me to choose Visual Studio
2015.

A different person emailed me. He recommended for Windows 10: Visual
Studio 2017 or Visual Studio 2022 (without criticizing Visual Studio
2015). For Windows 10, he recommended to avoid the most recent Visual
Studio.

However, despite what that emailer wrote, I note
"Visual Studio 2017 will install and run on the following operating
systems:

Windows 11 supported OS versions: Home, Pro, Pro Education, Pro for Workstations, Enterprise, and Education
Windows Server 2025: Standard and Datacenter
Windows Server 2022: Standard and Datacenter
Windows Server 2019: Standard and Datacenter
Windows Server 2016: Standard and Datacenter
Each supported operating system has its own lifecycle independent of
the Visual Studio support lifecycle. The Visual Studio team applies
each of those lifecycle schedules to inform adding and removing
support for operating system versions. An operating system may reach
end of support before the Visual Studio release, at which point Visual
Studio will no longer consider that operating system version
supported. If an operating system is in the Extended Security Updates
(ESU) phase then it is supported only with ESU patches installed.
[. . .]
Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC edition and Windows 10 S are not supported
for development. You may use Visual Studio 2017 to build apps that run
on Windows 10 LTSC and Windows 10 S.
[. . .]"
says HTTPS://learn.MicroSoft.com/En-US/VisualStudio/releases/2017/VS2017-system-requirements-VS

I do not know what variant of Windows 10 I have (e.g. Windows 10
Enterprise LTSC edition or Windows 10 S or something else).

HTTPS://learn.MicroSoft.com/En-US/VisualStudio/releases/2022/system-requirements
warns similarly about many variants of Windows 10.

(S. HTTP://Gloucester.Insomnia247.NL/ fuer Kontaktdaten!)

Start with:

1) winver - This utility is available over a long time period (even on WinXP).
- It does a poor job of describing the release.
2) slmgr /dlv - this has a bit more detail (Software License Manager description)

Windows has a multitude of executable types, only the details
of some of them matter.

1) ARM versus x86. A Qualcomm (Windows) laptop from the year 2026, has an ARM
processor so ARM executables ("arm64") run fastest. There is an interpreter
for x86 executables. The x86 executables can be win32 (PE32/PE32+)==>(x86/x86-64)
or Metro.App (manifest driven, HTML/JS or whatever). The loader is a jolly
piece of work, and the loading method is not unified and is a joke.

2) The Win10-S is an OS where only the Metro.App type runs (this
turns your product into a smartphone, in that you are tied
to the Microsoft Store for your executables). The
ability to run win32 (PE32/PE32+) you would have installed with Setup.exe
is "deprecated". The license on these, allows the newly arrived -S
device to be converted to a regular release instead (which runs
both win32 and Metro.App). Like -S conversion to Win10 Home
(also known as Win10 Core in slmgr). Anyone in the USENET groups, has
already converted their Win10-S to Win10 Home. Business users may be
locked down to Win10-S, or Education users perhaps. The Win10-S is
the answer to the ChromeBook.

The Windows ecosystem is an unnecessarily complex one, where only
an experienced developer (say Raymond Chen) could ever explain to
you, all the false starts and passed opportunities. Like
Adobe Flash [deprecated] and Silverlight [deprecated]. UWP
(Universal Windows Program). Metro.App . win32 (PE32/PE32+).
One-click installer (Q: partition). MSI/MSIX. Visual Studio
Runtimes. DotNET (old and new versions). There isn't even
a utility, that when pointed to a Windows object, can tell
you what it is! Like, even if there was a "file" command,
it is unlikely to be able to be pointed
at a UWP and tell you that it is a UWP and is not a Metro.App .

At one time, a Metro.App "EXE" had a stub PE32 at the beginning
of it, and no payload. Double-clicking such a file, caused
the screen to flash (as the stub PE32 loaded and 10 milliseconds
later, exited again). Today, the Matro.App "EXE" has a file size
of zero, so the stub PE32 is gone. This means that even the
single program type, has more than one representation that
changed as time passed. And if you ask me which folder you
should look in, I will tell you it is the "Permission Denied"
folder, which is why more people do not have experience with
taking apart Metro.App folders.

How many Windows utilities can correctly list the contents
of an NTFS file system ? Well, none really :-) This is
one of my pet peeves, that NTFS is so opaque. Only the
C: drive is hard to list, data drives are easy to list.
In the extreme cases, one Windows utility will have
100,000 more lines in the output than another utility.
That's how many filenames the worst utilities will miss.
Utilities which read $MFT and do not stat() stand the
best chance of giving a full list. But they must have
a proper hardlink parsing capability, to get full marks.
The limit on hardlinks to a file, is 1024 or so, and naive
programs cannot handle that test case.

The program nfi.exe was written near the year 2000. It
does a decent job of listing files, but it has no hardlink
support at all, which means it cannot serve as our
utility of choice... unless Microsoft fixes and re-releases
the thing, which they have obviously NOT done. Useless twits!

Paul


--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Dear Paul:

Thanks for that informative response. Outputs from commands which you
suggested are below. . .

Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote: |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|"On Sun, 7/26/2026 6:13 AM, C¢il¡n Niocl s¡n Glost‚ir wrote: |
|[. . .] |

However, despite what that emailer wrote, I note |
"Visual Studio 2017 will install and run on the following operating |
systems: |
|
Windows 11 supported OS versions: Home, Pro, Pro Education, Pro for |
Workstations, Enterprise, and Education |
Windows Server 2025: Standard and Datacenter |
Windows Server 2022: Standard and Datacenter |
Windows Server 2019: Standard and Datacenter |
Windows Server 2016: Standard and Datacenter |
Each supported operating system has its own lifecycle independent of |
the Visual Studio support lifecycle. The Visual Studio team applies |
each of those lifecycle schedules to inform adding and removing |
support for operating system versions. An operating system may reach |
end of support before the Visual Studio release, at which point Visual |
Studio will no longer consider that operating system version |
supported. If an operating system is in the Extended Security Updates |
(ESU) phase then it is supported only with ESU patches installed. |
[. . .] |
Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC edition and Windows 10 S are not supported |
for development. You may use Visual Studio 2017 to build apps that run |
on Windows 10 LTSC and Windows 10 S. |
[. . .]" |
says |
HTTPS://learn.MicroSoft.com/En-US/VisualStudio/releases/2017/VS2017-system-requirements-VS |
|
I do not know what variant of Windows 10 I have (e.g. Windows 10 |
Enterprise LTSC edition or Windows 10 S or something else). |
|

|[. . .] |
| |
|Start with: |
| |
|1) winver - This utility is available over a long time period (even on WinXP). |
| - It does a poor job of describing the release." |
|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

"Windows 10


-----------


Microsoft Windows

Leagan [i.e. Version] 22H2 (T¢g il [i.e. Build] OS 19045.6466)"
said
WinVer
today before a trademark-and-intellectual-property-rights warning
referring to "Windows 10 Home" without identifying any other version
of Windows. Cf.
"
Ver

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.19045.6466]".

|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|"2) slmgr /dlv - this has a bit more detail (Software License Manager description)" |
|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

Within a few seconds of WinVer and Ver on the same installation, SLMgr /dlv showed me a DIFFERENT version number . . .
"Windows Script Host

Software licensing service version: 10.0.19041.6456

Name: Windows(R), Core edition
Description: Windows(R) Operating System, RETAIL channel
[many more lines. . .]"
said
SLMgr /dlv

|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|"Windows has a multitude of executable types, only the details |
|of some of them matter. |
| |
|1) ARM versus x86. [. . .] |
|[. . .]" |
|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

I had built this source code for a 64-bit, non-MegaScoria operating
system. I would install MS SDK or Visual Studio to build a 32-bit-x86
Windows copy. If a potential user would like a copy for a different
processor or for a different bit configuration or a different
operating system, then I could consider building so if such a user
would not know how to build.
(S. HTTP://Gloucester.Insomnia247.NL/ fuer Kontaktdaten!)

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 26/07/2026 6:13 PM, C¢il¡n Niocl s¡n Glost‚ir wrote:

However, despite what that emailer wrote, I note
"Visual Studio 2017 will install and run on the following operating
systems:

[snip]

Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC edition and Windows 10 S are not supported
for development. You may use Visual Studio 2017 to build apps that run
on Windows 10 LTSC and Windows 10 S.
[. . .]"
says HTTPS://learn.MicroSoft.com/En-US/VisualStudio/releases/2017/VS2017-system-requirements-VS

I do not know what variant of Windows 10 I have (e.g. Windows 10
Enterprise LTSC edition or Windows 10 S or something else).

Win+r then winver should tell you. My current installation is Windows
10 Home, and I still get updates. I previously said I have VS 2022 in- stalled.

Even without a "supported" system, VS may still install and run, but
the MS support team will ignore any support tickets; is my guess.

--
Johann | email: invalid -> com | http://www.myrkraverk.com/blog/
I'm not from the Internet, I just work there. | via Easynews.com

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 26/07/2026 10:12 PM, C¢il¡n Niocl s¡n Glost‚ir wrote:

I had built this source code for a 64-bit, non-MegaScoria operating
system. I would install MS SDK or Visual Studio to build a 32-bit-x86
Windows copy. If a potential user would like a copy for a different
processor or for a different bit configuration or a different
operating system, then I could consider building so if such a user
would not know how to build.

I am now going to assume you've installed, or will be able to install
VS 2015 in the near future. Be sure to use /x86 Native Tools Command
Prompt for VS <year>/ to build 32bit binaries, and not the x64. You
can see the correct prompt has the text

[vcvarsall.bat] Environment initialized for: 'x86'

echoed on the screen. And that's assuming you do like I do, and just
use the command line tools.


Happy building!
--
Johann | email: invalid -> com | http://www.myrkraverk.com/blog/
I'm not from the Internet, I just work there. | via Easynews.com

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)